Monthly Archives: February 2011

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Discovering my hidden talent often scares people. They absolutely would never assume that I would even associate with anything related to my hidden talent, so it shocks them to find out…

…that I am actually a near-perfect shot with a rifle.

Yup. I am. Apparently it runs in my family. I discovered my talent while at summer camp during the summers between 5th grade and 8th grade. I love shooting. However, I don’t get to shoot much at all. Like never actually. I haven’t shot in years. Somehow I imagine I would still be as good though… only actually shooting at some point will tell, I suppose. But there you have it. My hidden talent is that I am a near-perfect shot with a rifle.

Ironically, the smallest thing near me is my iPod nano. Get the irony? Cuz it’s a nano? Ok, I promise I’m done. 🙂

Anyway, the smallest object near me is the iPod nano that my Grandma gave me when I visited her a month or so ago. It’s small. Much, much smaller than the electric blue 2nd generation iPod nano I had when I was in college. This iPod is so small that I am constantly afraid I’m going to lose it. It’s like an inch square. Seriously. But it’s cool; it has a touch screen and 8 GBs of storage. 8 GBs of music is a lot of music, and I love music so it works out quite well for me! Also, it is a metallic grey purple, which is super fun. I really like grey and purple, so the combo is fun and sleek and sophisticated. But mostly, I love it because my Grandma gave it to me! She is so thoughtful and awesome! I’ve loved being able to jam while taking walks or walking downtown to work. It was a spectacular gift!

I love random acts of kindness. I love trying to be kind to random people and those close to me. I also love being the recipient of random acts of kindness. Let’s be real… who doesn’t?

I try to be kind and considerate in general. Though I’m not always a fan of chores such as cleaning and doing the dishes or even housewifey things like packing lunches, I try to do these things and be considerate and kind to both my roommate and my husband. However, doing these chores isn’t a random act of kindness.

The last random act of kindness I did was probably on Monday when I let my friend borrow my car for the day to drive to Dayton, OH and back. That is something I wouldn’t do on a daily basis. And though I would typically let anyone borrow anything of mine that I wasn’t currently using (or wasn’t weird to borrow – like toothbrushes), letting Emily borrow my car was random in that it doesn’t happen every day. So yeah… I think that is it.

As for receiving random acts of kindness, people have been really kind to me recently, though it isn’t necessarily random. Friends have bought me lunch; Mal lets me and my husband live with her rent free, lets us do laundry, and makes us dinner; John’s parents lent us a car and a phone; the list goes on and on… I am blessed. Also I have received many encouraging e-mails from random people recently as a result of an article I published. Those are random and kind.

What was the last random act of kindness you did? Or what was the last random act of kindness that touched you?

Hmmm… this is an interesting topic. What gets better with age? Since I’m 23 and consider myself relatively young in the scheme of adulthood, I don’t know too much about aging outside of the general growing up experience.

I do know that red wine gets better with age. After trying some expensive wine at Morton’s The Steakhouse on my honeymoon and trying older wines while in China, I can say that old red wine is better than new red wine. I think in general old alcohol is better than new alcohol, but to be honest, I don’t drink much so I don’t really know. Serve me a Killian’s Irish Red with my dinner, and I’ll be happy!

When I was growing up, I expected my relationship with my parents to get better with age. I figured that as I got older I would understand their perspective more and that they would treat me like an adult. I thought we would be able to resolve our differences. Sadly, as of right now, we aren’t even talking anymore. I suppose at some point we will talk through all that has happened, but until that point, my relationship with my parents is one thing I expected to get better than just hasn’t.

As for one thing I didn’t expect to get better with age that did, I would have to say that my weight and general fitness has improved rather than getting worse. Of course, I haven’t had kids yet, but still. I figured my weight and fitness level would stabilize when I grew up and got a big kid job that didn’t allow for me to make drastic changes to my lifestyle. But recently, I have lost weight and begun to exercise, so I am slimmer and healthier than I have been in as long as I can remember! And the best part is that I am still losing weight! I love Pilates and eating healthy, delicious food. Also, I love discovering new recipes that help accomplish the eating of healthy, delicious food.

So there may be some benefits to blogging when I eat my breakfast. You know, like being more consistent since I do eat breakfast every day. Also, getting my post done early so I don’t have to think about it later when friends want to hang out. And last, but certainly not least, not having to think too terribly much about the topic, which is what happened today since the topic is what do I want to eat right now (and who would it be with)?

Though I am making a delicious breakfast consisting of a glass of milk, a cup of Espresso Roast coffee from Starbucks (brewed at home), a banana, and toast with melted peanut butter (which would only be better if it was crunchy peanut butter), that is not what I would pick if I could eat anything I wanted right now. I would eat a cranberry orange scone with a grande nonfat latte at Starbucks with Lo. That is what I want to eat and who I want to eat it with. Since Lo currently lives in Portland, and I am broke and trying to eat more healthy food anyway, I will enjoy the previously mentioned breakfast.

One of my best friends Lo and I!

Since I don’t frequently get to purchase Starbucks’ cranberry orange scones, I recently decided to try my hand at making them at home. Below is a fantastic recipe from Taste of Home.

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

10 teaspoons sugar, divided

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup cold butter

1 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup half-and-half cream

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

Glaze (optional):

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon orange juice

Orange Butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 to 3 tablespoons orange marmalade

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, 7 teaspoons sugar, orange peel, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside. In a small bowl, combine the cranberries, orange juice, cream and egg. Add to flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms.

On a floured surface, gently knead 6-8 times. Pat dough into an 8-in. circle. Cut into 10 wedges. Separate wedges and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush with milk; sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake at 400° for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack.

I love Typekit fonts! They add personality and a touch of uniqueness to blogs. I found the perfect font for this blog. It is a “handwriting” font, but it just felt right. Sadly, at the moment, it is not working correctly, and there is this cursive-y font on my blog. I don’t like it all. But I currently lack both the time and the patience to fix it. So until further notice, I’ll just have to deal with it.

There are many thoughts floating through my head today. Life is surprising. I might just wind up posting random posts on this blog in addition to the postaday2011 topics that I am trying to keep up with. We shall see. For now though, today’s topic is how do I know when to publish my posts?

The answer is really quite simple. I publish my posts either when I have nothing else to say and I’ve reread and edited the content, or when I’m in a hurry, I publish something when it is long enough for me to not be too terribly embarrassed by it. I generally prefer to think about my topics and ramble on eloquently for a while so as to turn posts into little articles that I would be proud to use as writing samples. However, that doesn’t always happen. Like today for example. This post is quick, just the thoughts off the top of my head in the midst of a crazy and overwhelming day. Life happens. Sometimes, writing does too.